Shirley Temple - America's Sweetheart Collection, Vol. 1 (Heidi / Curly Top / Little Miss Broadway)
by Allan Dwan
from 20th Century Fox
Frank Sinatra - The Early Years Collection (It Happened in Brooklyn / Step Lively / The Kissing Bandit / Double Dynamite / Higher and Higher)
by Irving Cummings
from Warner Home Video
Includes Double Dynamite It Happened in Brooklyn Step Lively Higher and Higher and The Kissing Bandit.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 883929011520 Manufacturer No: 1000037360
The young, skinny Frank Sinatra was a big-band singer and the heartthrob of the bobby-soxers when he launched his movie career--a moment in time memorably captured by Frank Sinatra: The Early Years Collection. Five movies take the gangly kid from Hoboken through his hesitant first forays into the Hollywood game; everything here is in the minor-but-tuneful category, before he re-launched his career with From Here to Eternity. It's a fun set for Sinatra fans, not so essential for the casual viewer (and no extra features for vintage-movie mavens). Frankie's first feature, in 1943, was Higher and Higher, in which he plays--hmm--a young singer named Frank Sinatra. All right, it's not much of a stretch, but the kid fits quite comfortably into a madcap ensemble that includes Jack Haley, Mary Wickes, Dooley Wilson, and a youthful (practically unformed) Mel Torme. This is the kind of wacky universe in which a scullery maid has a French accent (it's Michele Morgan) and a British nobleman has a Danish accent (it's piano comedian Victor Borge). The film is completely insane, but fun. Step Lively (1944) has the same director, Tim Whelan, and a similarly over-heated farce in play: a theatrical producer (obnoxious George Murphy) tries to whip together a show while dodging hotel managers (Adolphe Menjou, deadpan Walter Slezak). Frankie's in there as a playwright who also sings. It's a version of the Broadway play that also served the Marx Brothers in Room Service, but the whole thing is really too labored to pay off. It Happened in Brooklyn (1947) doesn't offer much in the way of substance (Sinatra is a WWII vet returning to his beloved, but now less friendly, Brooklyn), but at least Frank is teamed with Jimmy Durante. Oh, and Kathryn Grayson and Gloria Grahame are in there too, even if the real love match is Sinatra and Durante singing together. Tunes are by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, including "Time After Time."
1948's The Kissing Bandit became for Sinatra what The Silver Chalice would be for Paul Newman: a source of self-mockery in later years. A truly bizarre concoction about the son of a Zorro-like bandit settling in Boston, the film has one specialty number featuring Cyd Charisse, Ann Miller, and Ricardo Montalban, and a lot of filler. Sinatra's career was sliding by the time Double Dynamite (1951) was released, and the movie did little to help. Frankie's a poor bank clerk who scores on a horse-racing bet but can't prove he didn't actually rob the bank. It isn't great, although Groucho Marx at least has one of his better solo roles, while Jane Russell is stuck in a dizzy-dame part (rather than her preferred sassy mode). For Sinatra, career resurgence would have to wait a while--this box set gives you the superstar-in-waiting. --Robert Horton
Jesse James
by Irving Cummings
from 20th Century Fox
The legend of Jesse James stars Tyrone Power as the most infamous bandit in the history of the West. Jesse James was a young Missouri farmer forced outside the law after ruthless agents for the transcontinental railroad kill his ailing mother and steal his family's land. Together with his brother Frank (Henry Fonda) Jesse forms a gang of masked outlaws to strike back at the railroad company and the banks that have joined forces to swindle the oppressed farmers.System Requirements:Running Time: 106 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. UPC: 024543244424 Manufacturer No: 2234442
No studio was better than Darryl Zanuck's 20th Century-Fox at dishing out lovingly textured Americana, of which this movie is a prime example. The outlaw gets canonized as an American Robin Hood, an honest farmer who, with post-Civil War Missouri overrun by corrupt agents of the Railroad, had no choice but to start robbing banks and trains to achieve a measure of social justice the System wouldn't provide. Tyrone Power as Jesse is quietly out-acted by Fox's emerging star Henry Fonda as brother Frank. The supporting cast is solid--Randolph Scott, Nancy Kelly, Brian Donlevy, John Carradine (as Bob Ford), Jane Darwell, Donald Meek--but the liveliest thing in the movie is Henry Hull, playing a newspaperman whose editorials invariably prescribe that whomever he's denouncing be "taken out and shot like dawgs." Fonda, Hull, and Carradine re-created their roles the following year in The Return of Frank James. --Richard T. Jameson
Shirley Temple - America's Sweetheart Collection, Vol. 4 (Captain January / Just Around the Corner / Susannah of the Mounties)
by Irving Cummings
from 20th Century Fox
Includes:Just Around the CornerCaptain JanuarySusannah Of the MountiesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 024543252993 Manufacturer No: 2235299
The Alice Faye Collection (That Night in Rio / Lillian Russell / On the Avenue / The Gang's All Here)
by Roy Del Ruth
from 20th Century Fox
Includes:The Gang's All HereTwo friends take jobs as truck drivers unaware that the trucking company is being targeted by a gang of saboteurs who will stop at nothing including murder to stop them.That Night In RioAn entertainer (Ameche) in Rio impersonates a wealthy arisocrat (also Ameche). When the aristocrat's wife (Faye) asks him to carry the impersonation further complications ensue.AndOn The AvenueLillian RussellFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 024543403562 Manufacturer No: 2240356
The brevity of her stardom might account for her relative lack of 21st-century fame, but believe it: Alice Faye was a huge star. She was the queen of Twentieth Century Fox for a few years and became the heroine of the wartime musical until she was displaced by her Fox stablemate Betty Grable. As a singer, she enjoyed a string of hits with her surprising voice, a low, mellow croon, which somehow sounds like the World War II homefront. Faye's fleshy, cornfed face had much to do with her girl-next-door persona, although the figure she shows off in a gold dress in That Night in Rio leaves no doubt about another aspect of her appeal.
The four-disc Alice Faye Collection gives a cross-section of Faye's Fox career: one film as the up-and-comer (On the Avenue), two splashy mega-musicals (The Gang's All Here and That Night in Rio), and one expensive, serious musical biopic (Lillian Russell). In all, she smolders rather than burns, and rarely goes long without a song.
The 1937 On the Avenue is an Irving Berlin spectacle with a silly streak: Broadway boy Dick Powell locks horns with the richest girl in America (Madeleine Carroll), with Faye on the sidelines as Powell's regular-gal pal. You can see why audiences loved her, and the movie itself is a snappy, sarcastic little gem, featuring some antic routines by the Ritz Brothers and a kooky collection of Berlin tunes (including "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm"). Lillian Russell, a 1940 bio of the famous Gay 90s singer, was intended as Faye's crack at a dramatic role. The movie's whitewash of Russell's real story (which, as a 20-minute documentary makes clear, made Russell the Madonna of her era) limits Faye's chances. Henry Fonda plays a long-faithful suitor, with Don Ameche and Edward Arnold (reprising his title role from the film Diamond Jim Brady) also in her orbit. That Night in Rio casts Faye opposite frequent co-star Ameche again; he plays a double role, as a suave Baron and a brash nightclub impersonator. The story is nonsense, but Carmen Miranda is around to do the chica-boom, and Alice looks drop-dead sexy.
And then there's The Gang's All Here, one of Hollywood's most legendary excursions into surrealism. Don't pay attention to the plot--just check out director Busby Berkeley's lunatic staging of the dance numbers. "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat," a showpiece for Carmen Miranda (it's the one with the giant bananas in a chorus line) looks like something dreamed up by Salvador Dali after an acid trip. Benny Goodman's swing band is also around.
Some care has gone into the DVD extras: a two-part bio of Alice Faye, featuring her daughters (and giving the story of how Faye walked away from film in 1945); a charming film she made for the Pfizer drug company, extolling the virtues of keeping fit; and a 20-minute intro to Berkeley's style. The print transfers are more problematic. Avenue looks fine, and Rio looks like other Fox color films of the era. Lillian Russell is preceded by a disclaimer warning of the limitations of original source materials, and indeed the print here is marred by serious tears in the middle of the screen during a few sequences. Gang's All Here will disappoint Technicolor fans; the colors don't "pop" as they should, and the film looks dimmer and vaguer than its onetime splendor. Here's hoping a cleaner, fuller version will emerge. --Robert Horton
Down Argentine Way
by Irving Cummings
from 20th Century Fox
Don Ameche stars as Ricardo Quintana the charming son of a less charming Argentine horse breeder (Henry Stephenson). Betty Grable is vacationing American heiress Glenda Crawford who "collects" horses as a hobby. Separated by a family feud Ricardo and Glenda must endure all sorts of setbacks and misunderstandings before crossing the romantic finish line. Filmed on location Down Argentine Way served to introduce Brazilian bombshell Carmen Miranda performing a variety of sizzling South American numbers with her own band. Also on hand are the Nicholas Brothers whose show-stopping dance number has been spotlighted innumerable times in various "best of Hollywood musicals" compilations. Hal Erickson All Movie GuideSystem Requirements:Running Time: 89 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS Rating: NR UPC: 024543244776 Manufacturer No: 2234477
Betty Grable Collection, Vol. 1 (My Blue Heaven / The Dolly Sisters / Moon Over Miami / Down Argentine Way)
by Walter Lang
from 20th Century Fox
Down Argentine WayAmerican girl (Grable) on vacation in Argentina falls for wealthy racehorse owner (Ameche). Lots of scenery and musical entertainment. Carmen Miranda's debut.Moon Over MiamiDon Ameche and Betty Grable star in this musical remake of the play THREE BLIND MICE. When an inheritance turns out to be worth a fraction of its initial value after taxes Kay Latimer (Grable) convinces her sister Barbara (Carole Landis) and her aunt Susan (Charlotte Greenwood) to spend the money on a trip to Miami where Kay hopes to land a millionaire for a husband. The Dolly SistersIn 1904 Uncle Latsie comes to New York from Hungary with two little nieces who immediately take to cafe dancing. In 1912 they're still at it but to pay Uncle's card debts they decide to go into vaudeville. Singer Harry Fox whom they meet en route schemes to get them an audition with the great Hammerstein; but their resulting success takes them far out of Harry's league. Lots of songs with a little story.My Blue HeavenRadio star Kitty Moran long married to partner Jack finds she's pregnant but miscarries. For a change the couple turn their act into a series on early TV and try to adopt a baby finally acquiring a girl in a somewhat back alley manner. Complications follow amid a series of musical numbers much too good for 1950 TV.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 024543244714 Manufacturer No: 2234471
That Night in Rio (Fox Marquee Musicals)
by Irving Cummings
from 20th Century Fox
A nightclub singer doubles for a Brazilian baron confusing his girlfriend and the baron's wife.System Requirements:Run Time: 90 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSIC DVD/DOCUMENTARY Rating: NR UPC: 024543403739 Manufacturer No: 2240373
"It don't make sense, the chica chica boom chic. But it's immense, the chica chica boom chic." Let us pause to ponder the immortal wisdom of these words, sung by Carmen Miranda in That Night in Rio, and then move swiftly on to effortless enjoyment of this splashy nonsense. Here we are in Rio--well, the Fox backlot--for an absurd tale of mistaken identity and romantic trading-off. Nightclub performer Don Ameche looks exactly like a famous South American airline magnate (also played by Ameche, natch), and so doubles for him during a lavish party when the Baron is away on delicate business. Alice Faye, still the top female star at Fox at this time, takes a supporting role, slightly miscast, as the Baroness. Faye always had the down-on-the-farm appeal expressed in her all-American face, but the form-fitting gold gown she wears during the party gives evidence of another kind of appeal; she's drop-dead sexy here.
The songs by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren are not copious, but Carmen Miranda has a couple of signature numbers and Faye sings "They Met in Rio." The plot had been adapted once before, as Folies Bergere, and would later surface as On the Riviera, with Danny Kaye. Extras include an informative 14-minute documentary about Alice Faye's life after quitting movies in 1945 (her two daughters contribute) and a deleted scene that has Faye and Ameche doing--you guessed it--"The Chica Chica Boom Chic." --Robert Horton
The Dolly Sisters
by Irving Cummings
from 20th Century Fox
Pinup favorite Grable and Haver star in this comedic and biographical look at the lives of Jenny and Rosie Dolly a Hungarian sister act who took Europe by storm in the early 1900s. The story focuses on the romance between singer-songwriter Harry Fox and the beautiful Jenny Dolly. Includes the song "I Can't Begin to Tell You."System Requirements:Running Time: 114 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 024543244745 Manufacturer No: 2234474
Double Dynamite
by Irving Cummings
from Warner Home Video
Bank teller Johnny Dalton too poor to marry his sweetheart 'Mibs' Goodhug saves a big-time bookie from a beating and receives a munificent reward...which just happens to match a mysterious shortage at the bank! Will Johnny's pal eccentric waiter Emile get him out of trouble...or in so deep he'll never get out?Running Time: 80 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/CLASSICS UPC: 883929010271 Manufacturer No: 1000037098
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